Mountain fun

On Saturday, Brad, Rachel, Owen, Ludo, Mark and I went to Schneeberg.  It's the highest mountain in the area surrounding Vienna, about 2000 metres high.  We arrived at Puchberg am Schneeberg at the bottom of the mountain around 11 AM.  We were planning to take the cog rail (called the "Salamander") up almost to the top, and then have lunch before hiking the top trails.  However, many other people had the same idea, quite possibly because it was 32 degrees at the bottom but a nice 22 at the top.  Result: the 11 AM train was full. So we staked out a few park benches in the village and had a picnic lunch while we waited.

Shortly before noon, we got in line to wait for our 12:00 train.  While we were waiting, someone spotted a rather disgusting man on a bench behind us.  He was excavating his ears for earwax using his car key - the entire key was jammed up his ear!  Of course, Mark promptly imitated him, reulting in this side-by-side picture collage:

OK, train arrived and up the mountain we went!  About mid-way, the train made a 5-minute stop.  The only reason I can think of for doing that is that that location had a canteen of sorts, and people got off the train to purchase a local specialty, a kind of loaf of bread filled with jam.

Once we got to the top of the rail, we had planned to do as much of the 3.5-hour trail that loops to the very top.  However, we only had about 2.5 hours, so the plan was to walk up for 60 minutes then turn around.  We started off with clouds drifting in front of us and around us, and then the sky seemed to clear.  We hiked quite slowly, mostly because of me and my uncooperative asthma.  My lungs eventually adapted, but it took a good hour, and even then I was huffing and puffing up the short inclines.  SO glad we decided not to walk up from the bottom!

Anyways, one hour later, we made a quick stop for a group photo and a short rest. We had a little chat with some cows on the way too. No lonely goatherds, though (lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo!)

And then we turned around, and saw the nasty black clouds that had been gathering behind us. Uh oh!

We increased our pace, hoping to get back to the station before all hell broke loose. But no luck: it started to rain a few drops... or so it seemed until we noticed the drops were bouncing off the ground.  Wait a minute: that's hail! Ow!

Small- to marble-sized hail pelted us for about 5 minutes, and then switched to tonrrential downpour, blasting us sideways.  And of course, no shelter on top of a mountain! Within another 5 minutes, we were soaked to the bone, or at least our front side was.  Funny thing: the rain was so horizontal that the back of our legs and our butts remained mostly dry.  At this point we stopped hurrying, because we were already as wet as we could possibly get.  And then, it rather suddenly stopped. 

We dripped our way slowly back, yodeling (of course!) and joking along the way. As we walked, we passed a couple of guys going up the trail.  We'd passed and greeted other hikers, but avoided looking at these two, because the genius on the left thought it'd be a good ides to hike in boots and white briefs.  What the h...?  When we got back to the station, the skies had cleared again, providing me with the perfect opportunity for before-and-after shots of a chapel: spooky clouds before the shower, cheerful (almost kitschy) afterwards.

We stopped in at the restaurant at the top station for another snack and a drink before going back down. Ludo noticed a plate by the door advertising another local dish, a Krapfen.  He ordered one, thinking a little puffed pastry would hit the spot. But then the waiter brought out this mountain of pastry, whipped cream and coulis, enough to feed a family of four!  Some of us felt obligateto help the poor guy out, and we forced down a few mouthfuls of the delectable stuff. :-)

One last thing: those hiking stick some of my friends were using? They are used here for 2 purposes:

1- Nordic walking.  This is an actual sport here, they even have competitions.  It was developed for cross-country skiers to train during the summer months. Normal people here (and I'm using "the word "normal" loosely here) will use them in the streets in town, I've even seen a few people inside malls with the sticks.  They look incredibly stupid, and besides, that's not what they were designed for.

2- Hiking.  Now this makes sense.  I tried them, and will definitely have to look into getting some if I do more hiking.  They are great stabilisers both up- and downhill. They also provide a tiny bit of extra push, giving your knees a bit of a break.

Happy trails to you!

Rainbows And BBQ

Last weekend was comprised of two very different days, both a blast - as usual!  :-P

Saturday morning I went to the Naschmarkt to get yummy fresh fruits and veggies. I also got a side order or crowd overload.  I love the Naschmarkt, but then so does everyone else, especially mid-morning on a Saturday.  Shopping there requires a good dose of patience and a complete lack of personal space - totally worth it! 

I met Mark and Owen for lunch, and we wandered over to the Greek restaurant a block away from my apartment.  By restaurant, I really mean hole in the wall, but the food is good and the tzatziki is fabulous! We then went to stake out a spot to watch the Vienna Rainbow Parade. While not a huge event, it was fairly well attended.  The participants themselves ranged from Dykes on Bikes to furries, with some great (and some trashy) drag, semi-naked rainbow people and even a fetish carriage thrown into the mix.  This being Vienna, both people watching the parade and those in it were all invited to drink, with drink carts on wheels and a mobile bar part of the parade. Quite fun!  After sitting down with some cool refreshments (very hot day), we went to join the parade-end party, basically, another place to drink in public.  On stage, there was first an anoyingly long periof of speechifying.  The only interesting thing was that a guy came to announce that WorldPride 2014 will be held in Toronto.  Funny, only when he started speaking did I realise there really is a "middle Canadian" accent!  Then the music started.  The first singer was a very... voluptuous woman with a really good voice, who belted all the songs you'd expect: In the Navy, We are Family, It's Raining Men, etc.  Not bad, but after about 45 minutes of that, we decided to move on.  Of course, just as we left they broke out the Grease songs and then Lou Bega came on (think Mambo No. 5, and no, he's not dead, just D-listed apparently!)

The downside of this public imbibing: people here seem to just drop their refuse where they stand. So the streets were full of plastic beer glasses, cans, bottles of liquor (empty of course) etc.  But this being Vienna, the parade itself was followed by the garbage detail who immediately started cleaning up the mess.  Unfortunately, that takes a while. Oh well...  

OK, back to the festivities. We had a time-out at a nice italian restaurant, and then wandered towards the location of one of the clubs holding the after-parties.  Having never been to a gay bar before, this was a fun experience: no pressure at all to impress anyone, and zero possibility of being hit on by drunken ugly middle-aged men! We chatted, danced and imbibed (OK, mostly Mark) until about 1 AM.  Then while we were sitting out on the patio-type area, a drag queen came over and complained that her shoes were killing her.  Owen did the gentlemanly thing and offered her his chair, which had the effect of attracting her interest on him.  And then drunk queen discovered slightly drunk Mark, and a very amusing conversation followed.  :-)

I left around 1:30 and walked home.  I have to say, I love about Vienna that I feel totally safe walking on the street in the middle of the night.  As the club was very close to my place and Mark lives out of town, he was crashing at my apartment.  He stumbled in around 3 AM I think, not sure because once I am asleep it can take a cannon to wake me up.

Sunday morning we took our time (obviously), had pancakes for a late breakfast and basically wasted time until lunch. We had plans to bike over to Donauinsel (island on the Danube) to meet up with a bunch of people for a 4th of July BBQ.  I was very much looking forward to this.  BBQ season is short enough to begin with.  Add to that, Vienna is mostly a BBQ-free zone due to some irrational fear that BBQs will burn down the city.  Only a few places are designated "grilling areas", mostly on the island. 

Owen came to meet us at my place, and off we went on our bicycles.  A loooong afternoon followed.  First we made the mistake of letting Mark decide the direction we'd take.  Seriously, the best way to get lost and/or confused is to ask him for directions!  We ended up making a long detour to get to where we were going.  At this point it was fine, as the weather was lovely, sunny and warm.  Getting close to the supposed meeting point, Owen took over with directions.  This resulted in us overshooting our destination.  Quick stop, inhaling of Doritos (we had not had lunch, seeing as we thought we'd get BBQ by 2:30 or so), cell phone contact, and then it was my turn to be the leader.  We finally did meet our group, thank God.

They had set things up, and the coals were getting nice and hot just when we got there.  However, the BBQ police also showed up just then.  This is really incomprehensible: a week ago, there had been a big festival on the island, and grilling was not allowed.  But the restriction was applied from 1 week before to 1 week AFTER the event, up to and including the 4th of July.  Why on earth would you restrict BBQs a week after an event?  Makes no sense whatsoever.  Nevertheless, the BBQ patrol was going from one group to another making them put out their grills and toss out the coals.  They told everyone that we could move to the other grilling area, several kilometres down the island. The problem was that only 4 of us were on bikes . The rest had either come on foot/by U-bahn or in a single car.  Owen, Mark and I offered to ride down to the new location and stake a spot for us, while the rest of the group packed up and followed.  So off we went again, thinking we'd get there in about 20 minutes...

Turns out it took way longer, as we had misjudged the distance, were unsure exactly of our destination, and had to mae a detour around a construction site.  Forever later we got there, hot and exhausted, around 4:45.  We sat down and wolfed down whatever we had to eat, which wasn't much, and had some drinks.  The group did finally find us, but not until about 5:30. It was a frustrating 2.5 hours, let me tell you!

OK, may the BBQing begin!  We set up the coals, but were very hungry and also set up a makeshift propane-like BBQ consisting of a camp burner and a grill balanced on top.  Brad (one of the Americans) was having trouble keeping the grill balanced, so I made like Red Green and created a structure out of beer cans and duck tape.  Worked like a charm! We finally had something substantial to eat, and then Owen, Mark and I set off to go home around 7 PM, wobbly with fatigue on our bikes.

Got home, took a shower and basically collapsed into bed.  Another fun weekend!

Weekend at the castle

What a great weekend!

Most of it was spent at Seibersdorf castle, very close to my workplace.  As far as castles go, it really is a tiny one (though it did at one time have a moat).  It has been partially converted into apartments, and is rented out short-term, long-term and occasional overnights.  My friend Mark is currently living in the castle, and had been meaning to have a castle weekend.  As a concert was being held there on Friday, this was the perfect opportunity to get some frinds together. We were a total of 6 people: Chris, Claire + baby from Munich, Dan from Göttingen, Mark and myself. 

We took in the concert on Friday - a piano recital.  It was quite lovely, almost to the end.  The last performers (music for 4 hands) were a bit... enthusiastic about encores, and did 4 of them, with only limited encouragement from the crowd.  By the 4th one, you could practically see the thought bubbles above people's heads: OK, stop now!  Is this over yet? Oh god, not another one!

After the concert, we retired to the courtyard to chat and share some wine and beer. Eventually, Chris and Claire went off to sleep.  Mark, Dan and I were not quite ready to turn in, so we had the brilliant idea to investigate both the basement and attic, in the middle of the night, without a flashlight.  The basement was not so bad, not complete darkness at least.  We saw alcoves with bars, I guess a kind of dungeon.  But no skeleton arm sticking out, reaching towards freedom.  :-)  Towards the back of the basement, there was a brick wall with an impressive, thick metal door fitted with a huge hook.  There was a wire of some sort going from the room through the door and into the "secret room".  There were also air holes above the door.  We decided that's where they used to lock up the evil twin brother...

The attic was another story.  First of all, most of it was pitch black.  Our only pitiful source of light was our cell phones (not enough!!).  We ventured a bit into the darkness, and suddlenly a loud fluttering came right in front of us.  We all jumped, and I let out a little scream, then we lauged for being spooked.  I later came across the "ghost": a pigeon was sleeping in the attic and we disturbed it.  Anyways,  Mark and Dan disappeared into the black depths of the attic, but I chickened out at some point.  Rather surprising, I didn't think I was such a wuss, but I blame the wine. :-P    

End of Friday.

Saturday morning, we had a nice breakfast and then drove into Vienna to play tourist with the visitors from Germany.  We of course had lunch at Figlmüller for some "face schnitzel" (it is actually larger than a dinner plate, or as another visitor put it, about the size of your face).  Soooo good! 

Then we went to play in the labyrinth and maze at Schönbrunn palace.  We returned to Seibersdorf castle for a late dinner, followed by more wine and beer.  Once again, Chris and Claire went to bed befaround 11 PM (poor parents of a young child, always lacking sleep!).  Mark, Dan and I decided to indulge in the sauna in the basement.  I think we attempted to cook ourselves, it was excellent!  And as it counteracted the effects of the alcohol, we decided we needed a nightcap before retiring to our respective quarters. About 3 hours and many drinks later, we finally stumbled into bed.  

End of Saturday.

Sunday started slow (obviously), and we lollygagged around the castle most of the morning.  Around noon, Mak, Dan and I got on our bicycles and set off into the countryside.  As Chris, Claire and the baby were flying back mid-afternoon, they could not join us.  We had a nice ride, and of course on the way, Mark found and photographed a bug. (Geek entomologist!)

We met up at a Heurigen for a late lunch before the family flew off.  A Heurigen is a kind of local pub that serves young wine from the previous year's harvest.  We lucked out and chose a rather lovely one, with a nice outdoor area complete with vines and roses, very fabulous food and yummy wine.  Chris and Claire came and went, and us three stayed most of the afternoon, stuffing ourselves.  Only then did it occur to us we'd have to ride our bikes back...  But it went quite smoothly.  Back at the castle, we went for a quick dip in the community pool around the corner.  Surprisingly, the place was almost empty, even though it was a sunny hot late Sunday afternoon. Curious.

We returned to Vienna for a late dinner at a Japanese restaurant.  We sat on the outdoor patio, within view of other patios with at least 3 large screen TVs playing a soccer (football) game.  (Really, you cannot avoid the World Cup around here!)  It was kind of fun to see both the game and the people watching it. Some passers by would just stop in front of the screens and stand there for a while, cheering.  The waiter was really quite rude to us, but the funniest part had to do with the chef.  You see, when I wanted to order some more sushi, we were told it would take 15-30 minutes because so many other patrons had also ordered sushi and the chef was overloaded.  Then a couple of minutes later, we looked up into the restaurant window to see the chef looking out across the road to the soccer on TV!  When we laughed and pointed, he made an "Oh no!" face  and promptly disappeared.  After dinner, we walked around the historict district, which is quite lovely all lit up at night.  Then, we all crashed at my apartment. 

End of Sunday.

Monday morning came around way too fast. I tiptoed around the apartment and left for work at 7 AM, leaving 2 sleeping beauties in my living room.  Mark drove Dan to the train station mid-morning, then also came to work. 

End of the castle weekend.